Russian men are lining up at a recruitment office in the southern Rostov region during the mass draft effort in September 2022. Photo: EPA-EFE/ARKADY BUDNITSKY
Despite the intensification of fighting in Russia’s southwestern Kursk region over the past few days as an unprecedented Ukrainian incursion shows no sign of slowing, Russian lawmakers were at pains to stress on Friday that a second wave of mobilisation would not be necessary.
“We have enough forces, there are already successes there, our aviation is working,” Russian lawmaker Victor Zavarzin told state-aligned Moscow radio station Govorit Moskva on Friday when asked if the situation in the Kursk region warranted a full-scale draft effort.
Zavarzin added that the 700,000 professional soldiers currently serving in the Russian military would be enough to repel the Ukrainian forces.
The Russian authorities declared a federal emergency on Friday following a Ukrainian incursion into the Kursk region, as local authorities warned that the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) were approaching the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant in the city of Kurchatov.
The biggest AFU cross-border raid into Russia to date saw Ukrainian troops gaining control of around 100 square kilometres of Russian territory by Thursday evening and capturing “hundreds” of Russian troops, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, while dozens of Russian soldiers appear to have been killed in a coordinated missile strike on a military convoy travelling to bolster its troops in the Kursk region.
Another Russian State Duma member, Viktor Sobolev, echoed Zabarzin’s statement on Friday, stressing that “everything was proceeding as planned”, telling Russian state-affiliated news outlet RTVI that there would be “no additional mobilisation for now”.
Though the Russian authorities seemed to be attempting to quell popular fears that another draft could be imminent, mercenaries supplied by the notorious Wagner Group have already been redeployed to the Kursk region to support the Russian military response to the AFU’s ongoing incursion, multiple pro-war Telegram channels claimed on Thursday.
Russia has not declared a full military draft since Vladimir Putin’s “partial mobilisation” decree in September 2022, when Russia’s Defence Ministry conscripted up to 300,000 reservists. Since then, the Russian army has relied on professional soldiers and those enlisting voluntarily to fight in Ukraine.
